WTF? Possible Secret Private Manned Mission to the Moon

What the...

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Not really moved by this. Any Joe Shmoe with credentials can announce stuff, and as much as I laud the private sector for the steps it has taken I'll be impressed when they put some actual technology to the test as SpaceX and some others have done.

If they do it I will be happy, and NASA will probably get more funding

If they do it right and are successful good on them.

So they discover dahek?.

I want to hear a secrete mission announced to the public. The paradox would astound me.

.... What profit is there in going to the moon again? Bulk moon rocks?

Economy must be back on track if it is throwing money at useless idiots again.

This Space thread just got Boscod

Because happiness, hope and adventure are all bad and we should go back to the cave, and none of that darned cave painting either, just sit in the dirt and mope for there is no future in DonBasco world.

DonBasco... what does it taste like I mean Tobasco is an excellent hotsauce. Does it taste like Misery


This post was bad and I should feel bad

So what if he is announcing the safe return of the mission?

The moon is the perfect staging point for other targets. It's gravity is low, it's local, and there are resources in plenty for those who know how to exploit them.

I think too many people would have noticed them on the way out, for that to be the case.

You know what else is local, with low gravity, and resources?



Things much closer than the moon.

Nope. NEO's are just plain too small.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4677877/Richard-Branson-moon-trip-plan.html
So is Branson going there himself? Will he be in a little conquistador space suit, complete with cross emblazoned on his oxygen pack?
"Took us a while, but we've finally colonized the moon with you Yanks. We Brits are always here to help!"

Helium 3, dude, Helium 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3

Closer?

He's talking about you. He's RIGHT BEHIND YOU.

Nonsense, you're just pissy that economics doesn't like your dreams and yet you oddly refuse to select better ones. There's no economic point to such a trip (no, not even He-3 strip mining) and any who do pay for it will basically be embarking on the most absurdly conspicious consumption ever devised by man.

Economy is not the point of humanity Donbosco, it is merely the means.

Ah, yes, the "Prothean Relics" - an ancient data cache that will help us build mass-lightening technology and FTL travel, left by an extinct race of insectoids. We have dismissed these claims.

I'm aware that the economy exists for man, not man for the economy, yet it is a useful guide as to the utility of such an endeavour. And honestly, all this would be is for wasting wealth in an absurd fashion.

There was no economic insentive to climbing mount everest, for hiking to the North or South poles, these were simply things to be done, it cost huge amounts of money for its time and was done just for the sake of it. For adventure, glory and because there was something out there that hadn't had man stand on it yet.

These were dreams, not driven by economics, neither is this trip. It is a modern day adventure, by rich people with the money to fufill the dreams of childhood. Whats even better is all of these men want to share that adventure, they are all developing companies and technology which will oneday this century allow average people to make a trip to the moon, stand on its surface and be humbled by the sight of the earth rising over the horizon.

If you apply your brutal standard of economic viability to everything man has accompished then all art, adventure and gazing upwards at the stars is a gross waste of GDP and conspicuous consumption.


These men are investing their own money to develop revolutionary technology that will benifit all. If they use it to preform a giant publicity stunt landing on the moon with their hard earned money and technology it is fine by me. They should be upheld as a model for all billionares, instead of growing fat and old in a mansion put their wealth to use and do something amazing.


It is because of these men that one day, this century you will be able to personaly see this view for the price of an airline ticket:




If more people can see this personaly they can truely realise how small our little ball of rock and water is, how we have to learn to care for it and spread to the stars to make more like it.

We need to expand into space. Establish colonies,and contently work on better tech. Better energy tech, and better tech to get into orbit. Better medicine, better electronics, better materials, ect.

Oh and the first basketball game in zero-g is going to be pretty sweet, whenever we get to it.

Humanity has everything to gain from doing this. Like putting money into infrastructure is good for individual nations, putting money into space is good for humanity.